Today wasn’t a busy day as well. We went on a short exploratory hike around Ten Sleep, WY, where we’ve learned to identify many different trees such as the Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), the Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa), the Box Elder (Acer negundo), the Willow tree Narrowleaf Cottonwood (Populus angustifolia), etc. I’m sure I must be forgetting some, but I’ll remember in time.
We also saw some other plants, such as the Virgin’s Bower, or Clematis ligusticifolia, from the Buttercup family. It’s actually a vine, which seemed to be on top of a shrub. It had beautiful tiny flowers with bigger 4 petal-like white sepals. It was on the side of the road with access to sunlight, although sometimes shaded by the trees around. I chose it because I really liked the shape of the inflorescence and the white color that really contrasted with the bright green background. At first, I actually thought it was just one big shrub, until I realized it was one plant on top of another. This got me thinking about Kimmerer’s “Three Sisters,” where the 3 plants - beans, corn and squash - had a symbiotic relationship where they supported each other, being codependent and yet stronger. I wonder if there was some symbiotic relationship on the case I saw today - the vine and the shrub. I feel that vines have a bad reputation of smothering other plants or being parasitic. I wonder what’s the truth, doesn’t the vine offer benefits? I should learn more about this!
Journal entry by Deborah
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